The County Line
The slating of candidates in a primary election is a subject that fails to catch the attention of many in the general public, but it is so important to the election of our public officials that it should not go unnoticed. Should political parties in Hamilton County slate?
Slating by the political parties can be controversial. Marion County parties held slating conventions over the past weekends. It involves a gathering of precinct committee members who vote a preference for one candidate for each office at stake in an upcoming election. The party organization then works to nominate the favored candidates in the primary.
There is no slating in Hamilton County. It was tried here a generation ago and received considerable backlash. Some of those slated won their primary contests, and some did not. It was not attempted again because of an outcry against it.
As cities and counties grow larger slating is more common because a smaller percentage of the voters know the candidates. The theory in favor of this practice involves the belief that folks within a party structure are better able to choose candidates who can win their respective races in the general election.
There is logic to this practice, but it gives political insiders great influence in the selection of our public officials. Often, a person not slated will drop out of the race, leaving voters fewer or sometimes no choices in the primary election.
In many areas voters still have a choice in the general election between Republican and Democratic candidates.
But, generally Hamilton County is a different situation. Traditionally, public officials are chosen in the Republican primary because the county is heavily Republican and, at the local level, the fall election simply makes the GOP candidates official.
So, voters get their real chance in the primary, and with the one exception 25 years ago, our local officials have chosen to keep the wide open primary where every candidate (at least in theory) has an equal chance to win.
It’s a good choice for Hamilton County.
As one who lived in and participated in the Republican slating process in Marion County, it is for the most part a “fixed” game. One, it is a fundraising apparatus for the Central Committee as one must pay a significant slating fee to be considered for slating, for example Indianapolis Mayor is a slating fee of about $10,000 and for City-County Council it is about $2000. You get a portion of the fee back if you fail slating. Granted, winning slating is no guarantee of winning the primary. Two, the County Chairperson controls the slating process through their Precinct Committeeperson appointees. In Marion County, with respect to the Republican Party, the majority of the “old” pre-UniGov city limits is filled with Chairperson appointees as the number of Republicans in those areas are rather thin to non-existent. Same goes for Democrats where the Chairperson appoints the PC’s in the “outside” township areas away from the old city limits. Through these appointments, the PC’s are generally told who to vote for at a slating convention. Even if you were an office seeker who would manage to “buck the slate” and defeat a slated candidate in the primary, generally the party apparatus would work to ensure the non-slated candidate’s defeat in the general election. Slating is a throwback to the “old days” of the proverbial smoke filled rooms where party leaders would pick who gets placed where on the election ballot, combined with ward, precinct, and district lines that pretty much determined who was elected to office. Slating would be disastrous for a one-party county such as Hamilton and I would highly discourage Madame Chairwoman from bringing slating here.